Here is what I wrote about J.T. Miller in Tuesday’s post: “J.T. Miller is getting huge minutes in Tampa and has six points in six games for the Bolts. The shot rate is rough, but Miller should be held despite that. Everything else should be a clear plus and nothing is better than playing for Tampa. Miller was on the fringe for the Rangers so this move is enough to move him to a hold.” And that’s me quoting me! Well, Miller exploded on Tuesday night, scoring his first career hat trick and putting ten shots on goal. He played over 20 minutes, including on the top power play unit. Long story short, if you had any doubt about whether Miller should be held, this game should eliminate that. Pick the man up because he can be a huge difference maker down the stretch. Let’s take a look at what else happened on Tuesday night:

David Pastrnak – Three goals and an assist with six shots and two PIM. What a third period for Pastrnak and the Bruins. That gets Pasta to exactly a point per game on the season. The bad thing is he’s gone from 3.5 shots per game to under 3 per game. He’s easily a top 50 player, probably around 30th, but I was hoping for a step forward into the top 20. Pastrnak is still only 22 years old so it is still likely that it happens, but it’ll be a slight bump down for his preseason rankings next season.

Brad Marchand – Goal and two assists with two shots and two PIM. Microcosm of Marchand, a little bit of everything. He’s been incredible when on the ice once again.

Riley Nash – Two assists. I’m still not holding him because the shot rate is poor and the PIM are near non-existent but he’s a great streamer as long as he’s on the top line.

Matt Grzlecyk – Goal and an assist with two shots and two PIM. Nothing to see here at this point in his career.

Justin Faulk – Two assists with a shot and two PIM. He’s playing fairly well lately but I’m still more than likely leaving him on the wire in 12’ers.

Teuvo Teravainen – Goal and an assist with five shots. Very nice breakout by Teravainen that’s going under the radar because of other people having bigger breakouts. He’s easily a top 100 player, but the shot rate will have to increase to get him into the top 50.

Brock McGinn – Goal and an assist with five shots. I don’t really see much from the 24 year old to think he’ll ever be more than a 30-35 point guy.

Elias Lindholm – Two assists with a shot. I really thought we were going to see Lindholm jump to another level this season. He’s still only 23 but it’s season 5 for Lindholm so I’m starting to doubt he’ll ever reach his full potential. He’s a fine streamer at the moment.

Sebastian Aho – Goal and an assist with two shots. Similar to Teravainen although I think it’s more likely Aho eventually gets to a top 50 level.

Alex Galchenyuk – Two assists with two PIM. Fine streamer but that’s it right now.

Jonathan Drouin – Two assists with two shots. Drouin has been one of the biggest disappointments in the league this season. Part of me wants to throw it out the window, and he’s still only 22 years old, but it’s still very concerning.

Artturi Lehkonen – Two goals on four shots. He’s been much worse this season that last year. Hard pass.

Antti Niemi – 36 saves on 38 shots in the 4-2 win over the Stars. Nothing like a revenge game. Niemi has had six great starts in a row. His numbers are incredible in Montreal, so I’m okay with streaming him, but you should be afraid that it can fall apart at any time.

Marian Gaborik – Goal and an assist with two penalty minutes. Despite this game, I want absolutely nothing to do with Gabby. He’s completely shot and almost certainly will get bought out.

Erik Karlsson – Goal and an assist with two shots. Despite the Sens being well out of the race, Karlsson has salvaged his season. He’s a lock for 10+50 and should blow by that with relative ease, specifically the assists.

Matt Duchene – Two assists with four shots. I am already imagining having difficulty in ranking Duchene last season. He’s been much better over the last month or two, and there’s no denying the upside, but it’s been far from a hold for the most part.

Mike Hoffman – Two goals on four shots. This season really isn’t that far off from last year, but the plus-minus turned for the worst and the penalty minutes have dropped. It looks like last season’s 51 PIM are an outlier, but Hoffman should still be in my top 50 next season.

Ryan Dzingel – Goal and an assist with two shots. Guess how many goals Dzingel has? The answer is twenty. 20!!! He’s not good in any other category so he’s a middling streamer, but the 20 goals is a shocker.

Cody Ceci – Two assists with a shot. I honestly couldn’t care less about Ceci.

Steven Stamkos – Three assists with two shots. There’s a decent chance Stamkos sets a new career high in points. Either way, it’s been an excellent season following last season’s major injury.

Pekka Rinne – 32 saves on 33 shots in the 3-1 win over the Jets. Sure, the Jets were missing almost half of their roster, but it’s still a great home performance. It looks like we’ve completely faded the Rinne downswing this season and will get a top 5 campaign, even if he sits a bunch over the last couple weeks.

Cam Talbot – 31 saves on 32 shots in the 1-0 loss to the Flames. Tough luck loss for Talbot who has been playing much better over the last month or so. I’m good with using him in almost all matchups at the moment.

Mike Smith – 28 save shutout earning the win. Get him back in your lineup if you haven’t done so already.

Semyon Varlamov – 33 saves on 34 shots in the 5-1 win over the Wild. I’m still uncomfortable using Varlamov but he’s been good enough to be used, as long as you’re willing to deal with the swings.

J.T. Compher – Two goals on three shots. After a hot start, the points have dried up before this game. Compher played only 11:33 in this one so I wouldn’t use him in fantasy outside of the deepest of leagues.

Jeff Carter – Two goals on four shots. He stole a point for the Kings with a couple third period goals. He’s been solid since returning and should be a top 50 forward the rest of the way with upside to be in the top 20 over a month’s time.

Drew Doughty – Two assists with six shots. Outside chance of Doughty setting a career high in points, but regardless it’s going to be his best fantasy season yet. I always think he’s overrated from a fantasy perspective but he’s been far from it this year.

Nick Cousins – Goal and an assist. Don’t see anything here long term.

That’s all for now guys. With five games on the slate tonight, it is up in the air whether or not there will be daily notes tomorrow. Regardless, there will be daily notes on Friday morning. As always, feel free to ask any questions or leave any comments below. Thanks for reading, take care!

ugh so I am in trouble this week… I had dubnyk going and he got lit… Today my opponent got a shutout so I am losing all 5 goalie cats. Bishop was hurt for me last week so I am running 1 goalie to his 3 so I can’t win the bulk stats…

I am losing assists 14-8 ppa 5-2 and +/- but winning the rest of the offensive cats. i only have 2 moves left shoukd I even bother trying to stream a goalie? I was going to do Saros and then my final dubnyk start to hit the 3 min… or should I just stream to try and win assists?

I am losing 8-7 and only need to tie to win… frustrating week to have dubnyk crush my goalie stats

@Shitwolf: Damn, that sucks. Such is the risk when you only run one goalie, one bad start absolutely kills you. How good are his goalie numbers? Can you catch up with a couple good starts or does the shutout make that unlikely? Assuming you are close to dead in the goalie cats, I’d probably just get the extra forward starts and try to get those assists.

@Shitwolf: This is interesting because one good start for you puts you right back in the thick of goaltending stats since you’ve only had the one start. That makes me somewhat inclined to make a move in net to try and get a shutout or one goal against game.

So I have a 1st round bye and I am trying to look into the crystal ball for my #3 goalie, since Hutton went down. I see Hutton went to a doctor instead of practice today. Right now I am holding onto Khudobin. I see Frederik Andersen went down, which could open the door for McElhinney. Then there’s Lehtonen, Saros, Kuemper, Craig Anderson, Markstrom or Christopher Gibson (50 save victory, 0.957 save %). Someone scooped Grubauer to stream tonight, but he could resurface. What do ya think Viz! Your advise helped get me to the best regular season record and an early pay-off. Thanks for being our guru!

@madden_curser: Man, this is tough between Lehtonen, Gruabuer if he gets back on waivers, and McElhinney. Hitchcock has already said that Lehtonen will start every game until Bishop is back which is quite appealing. Grubauer has been the best of the bunch, but I think that the Caps will try to get Holtby back in form before the playoffs. I’d lean towards McElhinney hoping that Andersen is out and because the Dallas schedule isn’t great, but it’s fairly close. I have no faith in Gibson being able to keep this up.

@Viz: So just to be clear, I’m on bye this week, so I’m looking to next week, but I still have 5 moves/week this week. I guess I’ll drop Khudobin for McElhinney today on the chance Andersen out for awhile and keep a close watch on the goalie world. Worst comes to worst I stream available guys for best matchups if it comes to that. Thanks!

@madden_curser: Yeah, I’m getting McElhinney because even if Andersen comes back, I bet they take it easy with him. They’re a lock for the playoffs so I can’t imagine he’s pushed at all. If it doesn’t work out, streaming will be fine too. No problem!